Telecommunications systems, cable televisions systems, and data communication networks use communication networks to rapidly convey large amounts of information between remote points. A communication network may include network elements that route packets through the network. Some network elements may include a distributed architecture, wherein packet processing may be distributed among several subsystems of the network element (e.g., line cards).
For many years, the management of communications networks using synchronous optical networking (SONET) and synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) multiplexing equipment has been primarily based on Transaction Language 1 (TL1) which uses a fixed Access Identifier (AID) representing a containment relationship (e.g., where “A>B” is read as “A contains B”). Some example SONET containment relationships may include:                OC-N>STS-1>VT (where VT=VT1.5, VT2, VT3, VT6)        OC-N>STS-Nc (where c=3, 12, or 48) (referred to as “concatenated” Synchronous Transport Signals (STS))        
In the case of concatenation, STS-Nc signals must begin on boundaries of 3, 12, or 48 in the concatenated frame OC-N. This, in the case of SONET/SDH, by knowing a signal type (e.g., STS-1, VT2, STS-3c) and the TL1 AID structure (e.g., 1-3-2-6=Shelf 1, Slot 3, Port 2, STS-1 channel #3), one can unambiguously identify the target signal in the SONET/SDH frame structure.
Communications networks are now often configured as an Optical Transport Network (OTN) as defined by ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) Recommendation G.709. With OTN, relevant networking standards provide significantly flexible containment relationships for data frames, as compared with prior technologies. However, with OTN, it may not be possible to unambiguously identify a target signal in an OTN frame structure by simply using the target signal's AID, as was the case with prior technologies (e.g., SONET/SDH). For example, consider a system with the following OTN frame multiplexings:                ODU-3>ODU-flex (ODU-flex AID 1-3-2-4 in the form of shelf-slot-port-channel)        ODU-2>ODU-1        ODU-4>ODU-2>ODU-flex (ODU-flex AID 1-3-2-4 in the form of shelf-slot-port-channel).        
For the above examples, it may not be possible to unambiguously identify the target signal in the OTN frame by knowing only the target signal type and AID. In particular, the first and third mappings above could have the same AID structure (e.g., 1-3-2-4) and have the same target signal (an ODU-flex signal in both examples) yet the OTN mapping structures are different. This may cause problems with existing transport system software, as such software is often built around the notion of identifying the transport mapping for a given signal type by using the AID, particularly in transport systems built on top of the AID structure. Thus, there is a desire to maintain the AID structure (e.g., in the form of shelf-slot-port-channel) while being able to identify a target signal in the OTN multiplexing structure.
For purposes of illustration throughout the remainder of this disclosure, the first and third example mapping above may be referred to “Example #1” and “Example #3,” respectively.